2009 Dayi Lau Cha Tou Ripe Brick (2009 大益 老茶头 熟砖)

Lau Cha Tou or “Old Tea Nugget” is formed during the process of making ripe puerh. Wet maocha is piled up to several feet high to start the fermentation process. As a result of pressure and moisture, some of the maocha became compressed into small clumps which were then collected and pressed into these delicious bricks.

This brick is not difficult to pry. In fact, pulling out the clumps are easy enough without any tea pick. It has also lost most of its wodui smell.

The initial brews are not dark as the tea nuggets take time to open up. At brew 4–6, it is the darkest, thickest, smoothest and most coffee-ish chocolatey. There is good sweet huigan. There is also good amount of dates fragrance in most of the brew before fading at the very end.

Dayi’s Lao Cha Tou prices has been rising and it’s expected as the amount of cha tou is limited (supposedly not a goal in ripe fermentation) and unpredictable production quantity. I don’t fancy much ripe puerh. If all ripe puerh taste like lao cha tou, I’m sure gap between prices of ripe vs raw will narrow.